Tag Archives: Brandon Saad

The Chicago Blackhawks had a game to play in Colorado Saturday night. The Hawks playoff position was locked in earlier that afternoon when St. Louis beat Minnesota. Knowing that they would travel to Nashville to start the postseason, there was little reason for Chicago to put a lot of effort into beating the Avalanche.

The Blackhawks drew even late in the game only to surrender a late power play goal to lose their regular season finale 3-2. Since the Hawks were just running out the clock, I figured I’d let the 11-year-old handle the recap tonight. See you in a few paragraphs for some thoughts.

First Period-Some of the players took the ice, except Jonathan Toews and Duncan Keith. Cody McLeod scored midway through the opening period. The Blackhawks and Avs went up and down the ice, trading scoring chance before and after this happened. Everyone played nice and there were no penalties. Read more »

The Chicago Blackhawks dug down for some extra giddyup Monday night, subduing a more rested Los Angeles Kings squad at the United Center. The Blackhawks posted wins in back to back games, following up Sunday’s win in Winnipeg with a 4-1 besting of the defending champs.

First Period-Goalies Scott Darling and Jonathan Quick were on their toes early as the action was back and forth. Brandon Saad was denied by the Kings keeper on a power move around the net in the fifth minute. A few seconds later, the young forward was the catalyst for the Hawks first goal.

Saad got control of his own dump-in at the end boards, came around the net into the slot and fired at the L.A. goal. The puck was redirected by Bryan Bickell and then glanced off Bickell’s skate. Tumbling past Quick and into the Kings goal, Chicago took a 1-0 lead 5:31 into the game. Read more »

After completing a 2 game road trip through the week with stops in Carolina and Philadelphia, returned to home soil to face a familiar foe in the Columbus Blue Jackets. This would spell the return of Jeremy Morin who saw 6:50 of ice and tallied 1 hit. The Hawks got on the board early but the Jackets did not stop coming putting 4 on the board in the first period and never looking back beating the Hawks 5-2 at the UC. This could not have come at a worse time as the Wild are now just 1 point behind them for 3rd in the Central division.

Corey Crawford got the start for the Hawks who was pulled midway through the first for Scott Darling. Sergei Bobrovsky shut the door making some key saves to get the win. Michal Rozsival did not play in this one as it was time for David Rundblad to see some action. Dan Carcillo and Joakim Nordstrom were both out with upper body injuries. Read more »

Chicago continued their road trip with a stop in Big D to face the Stars on Saturday night. The arena was packed with red jerseys as Hawks fans were heard to open the game with a “let’s go Hawks” chant. Those few would be disappointed as the Hawks would lay an egg losing 4-0 to a team that is 8 points out of the playoffs. The Stars took advantage of the Hawks careless defensive mistakes scoring on two giveaways. They also allowed two power play goals off the stick of Tyler Seguin and Shawn Horcoff.

Michal Rozsival was back in the lineup after sitting in New York on Wednesday. David Rundblad was the odd man out on defense. Andrew Desjardins and Dan Carcillo were also out of the lineup for this one. Corey Crawford battled against the Stars Kari Lehtonen who made 33 saves to record his 5th shutout of the season. Kimmo Timonen played his 1100 game playing for 13:15. Read more »

The Chicago Blackhawks broke open a tight contest in San Jose Saturday afternoon, scoring four goals in the final 20 minutes. Behind a pair of goals from Patrick Sharp, Chicago wound up 6-2 winners over the Sharks.

First Period-Ben Smith, now on the Sharks, collected a mishandled puck off the stick of Kimmo Timonen and fed Barclay Goodrow coming down the left side in the third minute. Corey Crawford gloved the attempt to snuff out a decent scoring chance. San Jose fired the game’s first ten shots in the early going and Crawford was a big reason that the Hawks weren’t in a hole after the barrage.

A Bryan Bickell holding penalty at 3:46 gave San Jose an early power play. Logan Couture appeared to convert early in the man advantage but Joe Pavelski was ruled to have made contact with Crawford in the blue paint and the goal was disallowed. Read more »

After a weekend dealing with wild rumors of off-ice turmoil and supposed discord, the Blackhawks took to the ice on Monday with a couple of new faces and minus another. A United Center crowd announced as 21,641 watched the ‘Hawks cruise to a 5-2 win over the Carolina Hurricanes.

The win pushed the Hawks to five points up on Winnipeg in the Central Division and eight on the Minnesota Wild. If the playoffs were to begin today, the Hawks would finish 3rd in the Central and face the Blues in the first round. Winnipeg would play Nashville and Minnesota would cross over into the Pacific Division bracket by way of finishing second in the Wild Card standings. Chicago is still four points back of St. Louis and the Blues have a game in hand on them.

Jonathan Toews notched his 20th and 21st goals of the season as the Hawks easily dissected the Hurricanes defense. Brandon Saad kept pace with the Captain, scoring his 20th midway through the second after a solid Patrick Sharp forecheck that created a Carolina turnover. Marcus Kruger (6th) and Marian Hossa (18th) would round out Chicago’s scoring. Corey Crawford made 27 saves in earning his 25th win on the campaign.

Antoine Vermette and Kimmo Timonen made their Blackhawks’ debuts. Read more »

The reinsertion of Teuvo Teravainen into the Blackhawks’ lineup in the wake of Patrick Kane’s regular-season ending broken collarbone surgery proved to be a difference maker, at least for one night.

Teravainen scored on his first shift of the game on Thursday night and Corey Crawford returned to the nets to make 20 saves and post his 12th career regular season shutout in a 3-0 defeat of the Florida Panthers before an announced crowd of 17,387 fans (mostly Blackhawks fans) at BB&T Center in Sunrise, Florida.

The Blackhawks defense and backchecking was in top form, limiting Florida to just five shots through the initial 31 minutes of Thursday’s rematch of the Hawks 3-2 shootout-deciding victory two nights before at United Center. Tuesday’s contest saw the Hawks take a 2-0 lead into the third period only to see the Panthers force extra hockey.

Joel Quenneville made one other lineup change from Tuesday’s game. It came as a surprise in that most people expected Dan Carcillo to draw back in as a response to Alex Petrovic’s push that has put Kane out of action for approximately three months. Instead, Quenneville scratched veteran Michal Rozsival for Tim Erixon, who had played in just six games since being acquired for Jeremy Morin in mid-December. Erixon was appearing in his first game action since January 18th against Dallas, a 6-3 Hawks’ loss at home. Read more »

The Chicago Blackhawks had responses for the visiting Detroit Red Wings on two occasions Wednesday night. However, the Hawks came up one response short after a nip-and-tuck affair that ended with Detroit taking the game 3-2 in a shootout.

First Period-Detroit nearly got a puck past Corey Crawford in the first 15 seconds on a shot by Tomas Tatar. Patrick Kane got off an attempt that was stopped by Jimmy Howard before Kane sent the rebound high of the net. Bryan Bickell had a nice chance from the left circle a few moments later by Howard made the stick save.

Bickell was called for slashing 9:15 into the period, putting the Red Wings on the man advantage. Late in the penalty, Marian Hossa entered the Detroit zone and hit Brandon Saad for a shorthanded opportunity. Saad was hooked by Justin Abdelkader, giving the Hawks a shot at some power play time. Kane and Brent Seabrook had several whacks at Howard. Although Chicago held the offensive zone for most of the time and sent nine shots Howard’s way, the puck remained out of the Red Wings net. Read more »